


From 1st division commander to captain

by Pendule



Category: One Piece
Genre: Aftermath, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Marco needs a hug, Marineford Arc, Mention of Ace and whitebeard, Mention of Death, Mentioned Gol D. Roger, Minor akagami no shanks | Red-haired Shanks/Buggy, Post-Marineford, he gets one tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:07:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21772681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pendule/pseuds/Pendule
Summary: After Marineford, Marco is broken. His old friends Shanks and Buggy help him to dry his tears by recalling old stories and memories.
Kudos: 32





	From 1st division commander to captain

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!  
> First of all, I'm a non-native English speaker, so I'm sorry if there's any mistake.
> 
> That said, I hope that you will enjoy my fic as much as I enjoyed writing it! This one was in my files for quite some time and I couldn't bring myself to correct it at first, but hey, it's here now, it's all good.
> 
> I must say that this fic was a pain to write. I wasn't sure which tone I was supposed to use while writing it, whether I wanted it to be a really sad fic, or something full of comfort. I guess I mixed both and paf, this fic was created! Plus, I had trouble with the conjugation and the tense, so, please, be indulgent!
> 
> See ya at the end!

The sun wasn’t far from disappearing now, dusk already taking place, only to soon be replaced by the moon. She was going to be full tonight, a contrast with how empty he felt right now. Marco was leaning on the railing of a large vessel. The Red Force, Akagami no Shanks’ ship. He wasn’t paying any attention to whatever was around him. Simply looking at the junction between the sea and the sky. But his eyes were blurry and he couldn’t make up a clear line between the two everlasting expanses. He couldn’t hear much noises neither, but he could feel the swarming behind him. Easily imagining people evacuating both injured and dead people. Medics running around the place, trying to save as much lives as they could. He wasn’t sure if they were doing any distinction. If Marines were only taking care of theirs, and Pirates only healing their kind. To be honest, he could not bring himself to care.

He cared about his friends, but right now he couldn’t feel it. He could not feel pain, nor sadness. He was empty as ever, the soothing motion of the boat rocking on the low waves easing the feelings away from him. A blank mind.

They still hadn’t left Marineford. But Sengoku had granted them a proper funeral for Ace and Pops. _That was the least he could do,_ Marco thought. He was quite grateful for Shanks’ appearance though. He could feel a lump in the back of his throat at the thought of his friend and his captain.

He heard footsteps and felt someone sitting next to him. Yet,he didn’t tear his eyes away from the same point he had been staring at for the past few hours. He didn’t need to look. The silence settled between the two men and he even almost forgot that he wasn’t alone until the other person finally raised his voice. ‘We will leave tomorrow at dawn.’

Marco frowned. He hadn’t really thought about leaving. It was-… It was soon. Sooner than he had expected. He slowly turned his head to look at the man sat at his sides. Shanks was looking at him, an indefinable expression on his face. ‘That’s soon’ he finally said. His voice low and hoarse, the lump in his throat not really helping. The redhead rubbed his lone hand on his eyes and forehead and then ran it through his hair. ‘ I know, Marco, but that’s all I could get’. The blonde sighed heavily before letting himself slip on the ground, sitting next to the captain.

No word was said for a while. Marco was not really sure how long had passed by, he had lost track of time since he had stepped on the boat. ‘Shouldn’t you be with Buggy? He was in Impel Down for quite a time, if I recall’ he said, genuinely curious. Shanks snorted at that, only slightly tensing when he heard his friend’s name, turning his head to look at Marco. ‘ I’ll have time to catch up with him later, he has no ship anyway, so I’ll probably end up giving him a lift. But you, on the other hand, I’m not sure when I’ll meet you again’ His voice softens and Marco hates to hear that.

Marco swallows, not sure of what it’s supposed to mean, he’s not really sure what the redhead actually wants from him. ‘I don’t think it’s the good time for you to ask me to join your crew again’ he finally says. He knows the other man is smiling, but he doesn’t laugh at the remark. He can feel Shanks’ gaze focused on him and he shifts, its disconcerting. ‘You do realise that you’re the one in charge, now?’The other asks, tone uncertain and lower than before.

This is what it takes. What it takes to finally break his last defences, tears starting to flow and slide on his cheeks, crashing down against his clenched fists. He’s the one in charge. Because Whitebeard is dead, and Ace is dead too. He feels now. Feels how alone he is. He lost the most important person in his life, his father. And he lost a nakama, not just a crewmate but _Ace, his_ fucking _Ace._ He lost him and now it’s over. They lost. Lost friends, lost their captain, lost the war.

The pounding of his heart against his ribcage intensifies, becoming the only sound he hears. He feels the blood flowing in his veins, the headache slowly growing at the base of his temples, his eyes shutting tightly as he goes up. He leans against the railing, except that this time it’s to throw up, emptying his stomach from whatever he had ate last evening. Come to think that he hadn’t ate ever since. But he wasn’t sure he could even swallow something right now. He felt dizzy and almost fell over, only held back by Shanks that had gotten up.

Slowly, the younger man helped Marco to sit back, assuring that he wouldn’t puke again and quickly ran to his cabin. Marco didn’t even notice that he was alone until the redhead came back with a bottle of water and a towel. He helped the older man cleaning up, brushing the lock of hair away from his sweaty forehead. He gently placed a hand around the other’s shoulder, pulling him close to him in a comforting gesture, feeling his body trembling with each sobs. They stayed like that for what could’ve been 5 just like 30 minutes. None of them could tell.

Marco was the one to break the silence, still crying against Shanks’ shoulder, his voice a quivering whisper.‘How did you do?’ The captain closed his eyes at that, his head leaning against the railing. He breathed in deeply, feeling the memories rushing back in his mind. ‘I cried.’ He answered simply. It was the truth after all. He had cried for days, only stopping because he had no tears left to cry. His mind started to wander before he realised that Marco probably would like to hear that.

‘Roger’s death was, and still is, the most painful thing I ever had to go through.’He would had liked to highlight the fact that he had lost an arm, and that this still couldn’t outmatch it, but even him didn’t feel like joking, a dread feeling slowly taking place into his throat. Roger’s dead body and his blood dripping from the scaffold to the dusty ground still stuck to his retina to this day and he still saw it at night, reliving the execution every now and then. ‘We all knew before everyone, before he even handed himself over, that our Captain was going to die. We were prepared to that.’ He paused. He hadn’t actually talked about it to anyone else. The rare times he had seen Buggy didn’t lend itself to it, and he had quickly pushed these feelings away. ‘Yeah, we knew that he was going to die, but to say that we were ready would be a lie. A complete and ridiculous lie’ He noticed how tense his shoulders were and tried to ease his body as much as he could, trying not to shake the other man.

‘He was the Pirate King. Our King, our Captain, and a fucking myth if you ask me. I was young when I joined him, still was when he died. He was just like a father figure to me’ He paused. Marco was still crying but he had stopped shaking. He was now looking at him, listening attentively. It was weird to see the older man like that. When they were younger, Marco always was the one to comfort him or Buggy, it seems like time change everything. Shanks offered him a gentle smile and continued. ‘They were quite alike, our captains.’ He clenched his fist at his side. ‘Reckless and fearless’ He heard Marco snort at that, the man agreeing ‘Yeah…’.

Shanks sighed. ‘Anyway, I was far from being his first mate and I can’t exactly comprehend the depths of your pain, but...’He was cut off by Marco. ‘Did it ever stop? The pain?’ Shanks answered bluntly, without hesitation, ‘no.’ He sighed for the umpteenth time this evening. ‘No, it never stopped, and I doubt it ever will’ He knew that too well, there was no magic remedy. ‘It took me weeks to accept his death, I refused to accept it, it was too painful. But then Rayleigh appeared’ He paused again. ‘Yeah, he was the one who suffered the most, losing his best friend, but he was the one that got us back on our feet again. He reminded everyone that we weren’t alone, that no matter what happened, the Roger Pirates were here to help each others and to rise again.’ He bit his lips.

‘We did it, in our own way. Rayleigh started a business, Crocus went back to his friend’s side, Buggy and I formed our own crew. But this doesn’t mean that the pain isn’t here anymore’ He got up, slowly untangling himself from Marco. ‘Show yourself, Buggy, I know you’re here’.

They heard his grumble before the man stepped out from behind a wall nearby. Marco hadn’t noticed his presence and cursed, he had dropped his guard like a newbie. However, he accepted Buggy’s presence. Coming to meet him, Shanks stepped towards the newcomer. He snatched the bottle of sake from his hands and opened it swiftly, taking a sip before putting it down. Marco instantly reached for the bottle but Buggy stopped him. Well, his hand, for his body was still a little bit too far. The blonde frowned, ‘what’s that?’ The blue-haired man smirked at that, handing him a plate full of fruits. ‘I know for a fact that drinking with an empty stomach is far from being a good idea, believe me, you don’t want that.’ Shanks hummed in approval, having already bore the consequences of such a foolish action way too many times. Marco sighed but picked some fruit nonetheless. He was in no state to argue. Buggy sat in front of Marco who was still leaning against the railing. Shanks came back and sat between the two, close to both men in order to provide any comfort if it was needed.

‘I miss him too, our captain’ Started Buggy. _Maybe he had been listening to them the whole time_ , Marco thought. The blue-haired man grabbed the bottle, drinking straight from it. He kept talking ‘Sometimes I think about how crazy it was, the journey with him. Sometimes it feels so insane that I even doubt it ever happened.’ He settled the bottle down, wiping his mouth with his left sleeve. ‘In Impel Down, I started to rave and thought that I had invented all those memories, th-that everything was false, I…’ Shanks let his hand slide on Buggy’s thigh in a comforting gesture but the other didn’t even seem to notice, lost in his thoughts. ‘At a point I was so sure that it was all false, but the pain was here. Lying deep in my guts, that very sense of loss, emptiness and angriness always reminded me that I wasn’t lying.’ he trailed off. Shanks tightened his grip, his friend hardly ever talked openly about his feelings, his time spent in prison was something he would have to explore further, but later.

‘Anyway, just to say that the pain never fades away. It’s always there, crouched in the shadows. And when you expect it the less, it overwhelms you and you can’t do nothing but hope that it’ll pass soon’He looked up as silence filled the deck, the two men looking at him with big wide eyes and stunned look. ‘Sorry, it’s been a while since I talked about it with someone’ he answered, as to apologise for talking so openly.Shanks could easily tell that it actually was the first time he really opened up about it.

‘But you recovered from it, right?’ Shanks couldn’t stop himself from asking. They still had to cheer Marco up, insofar as possible, the man still had lost his captain and best friend. Raising his head, Buggy smiled softly ‘Or course I did! I’m the great Buggy, Captain of the Buggy Pirates! I have my crew, and in prison I even did myself some pretty good allies!’ Marco snorted at that, ‘Yeah I’ve seen that, they’re all stronger and have higher bounties than you’ The latter blushed at that, already talking loudly to avoid the subject. This earned them a loud laugh from Shanks, the redhead letting himself fall on Buggy, his hair mixing with his friends’ longer and blue strands. The sight was pretty, Marco thought.

A memory came back rushing through his mind, an old one. When Roger was still alive and hadn’t reached Raftel yet. The sight of two young cabin boys arguing about some stupid shit behind their Captain’s back. The contrast of their blue and red hair, cold and warm colour, just like their personality. The first Commander recalled perfectly how curious he had been when Roger had said that he had taken them under his wings. They seemed aggressive towards each others and yet, he could see the tenderness in their eyes. At the time, both being relatively young, he had mistook it for brotherhood. But years had passed, life had been rough for both of them, and the blonde had understood that their bond was deeper than he had expected.

Pirates weren’t known for love, but when it graced them, it was deep and never-ending. But not without difficulty. Going to sea without knowing if your lover was going to came back was something he knew too well. Well, used to. A fond smile was now resting on his face and he found himself taken aback by Shanks waving his lone hand in front of his face. ‘Marco? Marco? You there?’ He rubbed a hand on his face, his eyelids closing against his will. ‘Sorry, just a flashback’ he answered, choosing not to disclose it. He grinned, now Buggy was lying against Shanks, his head on his shoulder. Yeah, the teenagers he had known one day had grown in big ass adults, but they still were the same. Just stronger and bigger.

He caught Shanks whisper a tender ‘Getting comfortable, are we?’ and Buggy’s mumbling answer ‘Shut up.’ He couldn’t suppress the low wail escaping his mouth and the throb of the lump in his throat. At the sound, both men turned towards him and he became painfully aware of how messy he probably looked like at the time. He could feel the dampness of tears on his cheeks and the snot leaking from his nose. He wiped his eyes with his right sleeve, sniffing loudly. ‘Sorry’ he murmured.

He heard the ruffling of fabric and felt both men sitting at either of his sides. They weren’t holding him but their shoulders were touching and their knees bumping. ‘You know, when Roger died, we ran off to avoid the marines, it took us years to have some kind of stability’ Buggy started. ‘Well, one day I ended up having a pretty great crew, an island, and a ship, and I found myself thinking about him. About Roger. I was in East Blue at the time, so I decided to go to Loguetown. Hadn’t been there since the execution’ He was cut off by shanks, saying solemnly ‘The town of the beginning and the end’. Buggy nodded, agreeing with a hum. ‘Yeah, that’s how they call it now. It would be a pretty cool name if not for the reason. Anyway. When I reached the town, the only thing I found there was a bar with Roger’s name, and the execution platform. Nothing else. No grave, no tombstone, not even a commemorative plaque or a little inscription’ He clenched his jaw, clearly angry. ‘What Buggy’s trying to say, here,’ -Shanks decided to take over- ‘is that the marines never paid respect to our captain’s death. Just as if he was nobody. We had nowhere to commune with ourselves on Roger’s grave, for there was none. So, I know it’s not much, but I’m relieved that they granted us one for the fallen of that war’ he concluded.

Silence settled between them, all three absorbing the reality exposed by the meaning of these words. Marco swallowed, ruffling his hair in the hope to stop his distracted mind from wandering too far, in vain. He exhaled loudly, throwing his head back. The sky was already darkening, if there had been colours in the sky that night, he had missed it when he was crying. ‘Then they’re all three together now, I guess’ he said, more to himself than for the men next to him. ‘And we’re all three here...’ Buggy said, then adding ‘They’re probably arguing about who is Ace’s father’ They all snorted at that, ‘I guess he’ll have two dad and a mother for now on, then’ Shanks shrugged.

Marco closed his eyes, his eyelashes were heavy from tears. His chest and lungs felt compressed. His nose still caught the strong scent of powder mixed with blood and burned flesh. He could still hear screams and gunshots even though the battle had ended hours ago. Could still feel the faint iron blood-like taste and bile in his mouth even after eating. And when his eyes were closed, his father’s standing death figure and Ace’s bloody corpse stuck to his retina like glue. His nails were dirty from dirt and dust. His clothes were stained by blood _-and not only his-_ , ripped and dirty. He stank and a thin layer of sweat covered his whole body. He had bandages that needed to be changed and probably some stitches to be made.

He should’ve been self-conscious, but he knew that Buggy was in a similar state, still wearing his jail’s uniform. He couldn’t bring himself to care about what he looked like. He was a mess and he knew it. Shanks was probably the only one looking rather presentable. Plus, it wasn’t the first time that they all three ended up worn out after a tough battle. This one was different from what they had fought in before, but he was glad that they were here. It brought familiarity to the situation that was far from being familiar. He sighed again, his breathing was erratic but better than before.

Now firmly settled, the night was dark and the fog had slowly engulfed itself into the valley-like bay where the ship was “docked”. The ice still being here, the cold was now gradually numbing his limbs. Both men were radiating heat but he found himself shivering, his clothes not really providing any warmness. He was comfortably sat and was reluctant at the idea of moving. But he definitely had to move. It would be stupid to freeze to death right now, not after what had just happened. Another shiver shook his spine and this time it wasn’t because of the coldness.

He tried to get up on his own, but he couldn’t even fully straighten up before both men got up and grabbed him by the waist. ‘I can walk on my own, you know?’ ‘Don’t care’ They both answered in chorus.Marco sighed, he knew he couldn’t get rid of them that easily. ‘I guess you can provide me a bed or something, then?’ he asked, giving up. Shanks smiled brightly, already moving while answering swiftly ‘Of course!’.

They walked quietly, and Marco was glad to finally be able to stretch his legs, they had been sat longer than he had thought. Strangely, it seemed like Shanks was conscientiously avoiding his crewmates, slowing the pace when he heard voices in the hallway and speeding up occasionally. It wasn’t unpleasant, Marco had no wish to see anyone at the moment, he needed solitude. Well, he wasn’t quite alone right now, but he liked their company. It was different with them, because they understood him. He didn’t need some random pirate to feel sorry for him when they clearly couldn’t understand. He didn’t need their pity.

They reached Shanks’ cabin without mishap and Marco nearly collapsed on the bed, tiredness creeping itself in his whole body. He heard the bed crack under someone’s weight and a grunt. ‘I’m not sure we will all fit into that bed, redhead’ said Buggy, clearly annoyed. The owner of the so-called bed laughed at that, ‘You’ll have to make do, Buggy, or would you rather go and sleep in Yassop’s bunk?’ adding with an impish tone. Buggy simply grunted and settled himself in the bed, snuggling against Marco’s side. A comfortable warmth spread through his chest and he welcomed the embrace happily.

Marco was already falling in Morpheus’ arms when Shanks left the cabin, whispering something to Buggy about having to talk with Beckman. He heard footsteps and the door shutting before he finally drifted off, heart shattered and a newly haunted mind scarcely at ease. But at least he could sleep. He probably wouldn’t had been able to if he hadn’t talked with the two former cabin’s boys. The path to peace and ease would be long and uneasy. He knew that. The pain wouldn’t disappear, just dull, but he could do that. He had to. Had to leave the past behind and focus on the future. Yeah, he could do that. Just like a phoenix, he would rise from his ashes.

**Author's Note:**

> So I hope you liked it!  
> It's quite different from what I'm used to write, but it was an important fic to me so I needed to do it!
> 
> Actually, the idea came to me when I realised that, since we knew that Roger and Whitebeard were good friends, Marco, Shanks and Buggy probably grew closer and became friends as well, and I wanted to see them talking. Plus, the two boys had already been in the exact same situation as Marco, so it was only normal for the blonde to seek comfort from those two.
> 
> I hope that I transcribed my thoughts as well as I wanted to, because I feel like there's a lack of content with these three interacting and I needed to make a contribution to it! I know that I haven't exactly wrote everything that I wanted because my thoughts were messy and everything didn't fit here, but I'm glad with the result, so that's all that matters!
> 
> Anyway, please leave some kudos and comments, it always makes me so happy!!
> 
> And please give me your opinion on the fic, it's important for me! It was a tough one tho ♥


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